


There Are Places I Remember

by addledwalrus



Category: Original Work
Genre: 1960s, 1960s Music, Adolescent Sexuality, Angst, Baby Boomers, Brother-Sister Relationships, Cats, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Coming of Age, Dirty Thoughts, Family Dinners, Family Dynamics, Family Secrets, Fantasizing, Gen, Generation Gap, High School, Hispanic Character, Historical, Historical References, Homework, Horny Teenagers, Imagination, Italian-American Character, Literary References & Allusions, Male-Female Friendship, Obsession, Parent-Child Relationship, Pets, Plans For The Future, Pop Culture, Popularity, Slice of Life, Suburbia, Teenagers, Unrequited Crush, Unrequited Lust, Workplace
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2020-10-24 11:56:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20705603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/addledwalrus/pseuds/addledwalrus
Summary: Dolores wanted little else than to be loved by the boy of her dreams, while Tony had trouble deciding what to do with his life. Together, they came of age and faced an uncertain future against the backdrop of the Vietnam War.





	1. Family Bonding

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at writing a proper slice-of-life story and I would appreciate your feedback.

**January 1965**

There were few sounds in the world that Dolores couldn't stand. The sound of an ax being slammed into a newly arrived carcass was one of them.

It conjured up in her mind the sort of horrors that the poor creature must have suffered while in the slaughterhouse, being prodded forward against its will and disfigured with meat hooks before it was finally stunned into unconsciousness. She hated to imagine whatever happened afterward that resulted in a once-living and feeling animal ending up in the back room, where her father Sergio performed deeds that contradicted his affectionate behavior at home.

At the age of sixteen, Dolores still didn't know which side of the man was more reflective of his true character. The contrast could be jarring at times and it was for that reason, she no longer felt comfortable with his touch.

It didn't help matters much that he was known around the neighborhood for being loud and brutish. His job as a local butcher only solidified such a reputation and at school, it seemed like most people assumed that she was no different and avoided her as a result.

She couldn't help but resent Sergio at least a little for making it so difficult for her to maintain friendships, let alone feel brave enough to confess her feelings to the charming Tony Caruso.

If memory served her correctly, he would be stopping by soon to buy some meat for his mother. She always looked forward to seeing him because, in contrast to her overweight father, he was well-mannered and very much easy on the eyes.

Sure enough, he entered the store shortly before five o'clock and seemed to be glad to see her. He smiled and raised his hand to give a wave, thus prompting her to stand up straight and focus on serving him as best as she could.

"Fancy meeting you again, Dolores. Where's your Dad?"

She stepped right up close to the counter and tucked curly hair behind her ear while making eye contact.

"Out the back. Should I get him for you?"

"Don't. I'm fine with you too."

"Oh. Well, what can I get for you then?"

He placed a finger against his chin to signal that he needed to make his mind up about something. Dolores sighed and spent the ensuing moments studying his features for the umpteenth time.

He had dark hair and an olive complexion much like Sergio and many other immigrants from Sicily, though that was where the similarities ended. Tony had the sort of appearance that led many to deride him as a pretty boy, with his unblemished skin and long eyelashes that he had inherited from his mother. They complemented his brown eyes quite nicely and Dolores wished that those eyes would one day look at her with nothing but love.

Unfortunately, her appearance left much to be desired. She wasn't proud of her so-called 'Roman nose' and large mouth and had a strong suspicion that a boy like Tony didn't find them attractive either.

She knew that fairy tales were nothing but fantasy, but it was moments such as these that made her hope desperately for a godmother to appear and make her beautiful with just one wave of the wand.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I lost my train of thought..." Tony spoke up, interrupting her musings as he lowered his arm.

Dolores realized that Sergio seemed to have stopped chopping in the backroom and felt relieved that the horrible sound had ceased.

"It's alright. What do you want?"

"Two pounds of ham. Sliced."

"Coming right up."

She donned a pair of gloves and grabbed a whole leg of ham before carrying it with toward the meat slicer. There was no denying the misfortune of Tony seeing her this way, but she'd be a bad daughter if she didn't help her father once in a while.

With that in mind, she begrudgingly got to work while trying to imagine the look on Tony's face. He likely understood why she was in such a position, yet she still doubted that he found her anything besides pathetic.

It was just a shame that she couldn't be more like his attractive sister Sophia, whom she had admired greatly since childhood. The twenty-one-year-old never failed to be ladylike and stylish, something which led Dolores to conclude that Tony's standards were probably quite high.

_"I bet he doesn't even see me as a girl..."_

A tear formed in her eye as she continued to slide the leg of ham back and forth. She couldn't wipe it away with her greasy glove-covered hand, so she allowed it to simply roll down her cheek while taking a deep breath to stay composed.

She pushed through the rest of her task with difficulty and after weighing the sliced ham to find that it did indeed amount to two pounds, wrapped it in butcher paper before passing the finished product over the counter.

"That'll be 78 cents..."

Tony gave her a dollar and she hurriedly searched the cash drawer for twenty-two cents worth of coins, knowing that another customer might just come in soon.

She quickly handed the change to Tony. He pocketed it with a smile and took his purchase with him on the way out.

"Bye, Dolores. See you tomorrow morning!"

She raised her hand to give a halfhearted wave, but he left the store without so much as another glance. The silence that ensued was disconcerting and she wondered what her father was up to at the moment.

The answer became clear when she heard the faint sound of running water. Sergio was no doubt washing his hands after deciding that he'd dismembered enough slaughtered animals for an afternoon.

He emerged from the backroom shortly afterward, taking her by surprise as she once again tried to reconcile the butcher with the doting father.

"Sweetie, who was it that came in before?"

Dolores backed up against the counter nervously.

"Tony. He wanted to buy some ham."

"Him again?" Sergio remarked with a hint of derision in his voice that indicated he held little respect for the boy. Dolores already knew why it was the case and refrained from questioning his sentiments.

"Yes..." She opted to say instead with a nod.

"He's a macaroni. Should have been born a girl..."

At that, Sergio pulled a pack of _Camel _cigarettes out from his apron pocket and attempted to offer her one.

"Do you want to try it? You'll be seventeen soon..."

"No, Dad..."

"Suit yourself. Better late than never, is what they say..."

Dolores watched as he slid one between his thin lips and lit it up before inhaling. The smell wafted through the air and she instinctively turned away, hoping that her father's laid-back behavior wouldn't give passersby an unfavorable impression of their business.

* * *

Tony lived in a two-story house that had been newly built when his father first purchased it in 1954, during the postwar economic boom. He had been just a baby-faced six-year-old then, with a rudimentary grasp of the English language due to having only ever spoken Italian.

The move meant attending a new elementary school and although Sophia had initially been the resistant one, he soon came to resent the change in environment more than she did.

He had quickly become an easy target for the wealthy Anglo-Saxon children like Richie, who picked on him because of his appearance and heavy accent which they found hilarious. During the first week, he'd made the mistake of losing his temper and hitting one of the other boys despite being outnumbered. They had responded by pushing him around until a teacher walked by and demanded to know what was going on.

Unfortunately, the fact that he had attacked first was used against him. He ended up being held back after school and made to write repeatedly on the blackboard while his mother Maria was called in for a discussion about his behavior.

He learned from that point on to simply put up with whatever came his way, regardless of how bad it got. He put on a smile at home and lied each day about his experiences at school while at the same time practicing his English as hard as he could in the hopes of losing his embarrassing accent.

Dolores had been the new kid when he was in second grade and back then, he'd been glad to have a friend regardless of their gender. He took it upon himself to show her around the school and look out for her whenever possible, the latter of which must have contributed to her becoming so clingy towards him ever since.

Her apparent fixation with him could be worrisome at times, but he had to admit that it was comforting to have such a steadfast friend. He couldn't recall a time when she wasn't willing to take his side or listen to his concerns and he had to be grateful for that.

Another thing that he admired about her was the way she could handle working in a butcher shop when he was the type to become nauseous at the mere sight of an animal carcass. It took a special sort of person to be able to tolerate those things regularly and he could only assume that Dolores possessed a strong stomach just like her father.

As he leaned his bicycle against the wall and retrieved the ham, Tony realized how hypocritical his sentiments were when he ate meat every day without much thought.

A feeling of guilt swept over him as he entered the house through the side door and announced to his mother that he was back.

"Good! If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought you were a robber!" Maria shouted back impatiently, her words drawing a smile from him despite how much he knew she feared becoming a victim of crime.

He took a glance at the laundry machine that Maria had bought last December, then made his way past the bathroom and through another door so that he could arrive in the kitchen.

Maria was racing against the clock to finish cooking a minestrone before Vincenzo's return and upon noticing how stressed she looked, Tony offered to help as he placed the ham in the fridge.

The forty-two-year-old turned to glare at him while stirring the soup vigorously.

"What are you, an idiot? Asking if I need help, that's your sister's job..."

Tony felt slightly disheartened upon hearing such words but persisted anyway to show how loyal of a son he was.

"Yes, but she's on a date with Renato tonight..."

"You think I don't know? Go upstairs and finish your homework. The kitchen is no place for you..."

Tony said nothing in reply and simply nodded in understanding. He slowly turned around to head up to his room, only to stop in his tracks when Maria remembered what she'd sent him out for after school.

"You bought the ham, didn't you?"

"Yes, Mom. I did."

"Where is it then?"

"I put it in the fridge. You must not have noticed."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."

Maria shifted her focus back to the large pot on the stove.

"Leave the change on the table. I'll get it when dinner is ready."

Tony did as requested and he was able to walk upstairs without interruption. He crossed the hall to enter his modestly furnished bedroom, where he opened up his satchel and poured the contents out on his wooden desk.

He had six subjects worth of homework to complete and it seemed like he was going to be staying up late again.

* * *

Tony opened his eyes and glanced from left to right as soon as Vincenzo finished saying grace. His father looked as stern and no-nonsense as always, while his mother had put on mascara and a fresh coat of lipstick for the occasion.

It was such an observation that prompted him to wonder what their first date must have been like and when they had gotten married. Sophia had been born in early 1943, so their wedding must have taken place in either 1941 or 1942, depending on how the war had affected them.

Neither of them liked to speak much about that time and although he could understand why, his curiosity was still piqued by the odd sliver of information. He knew for a fact that another child had come into the world about a year after Sophia, but said sibling's gender and cause of death were things that remained a mystery to this day.

Thinking about it made his otherwise ordinary parents seem a little sinister and it was with paranoia that he carefully sipped a spoonful of soup and eyed them vigilantly.

"Tony, what's wrong? Why are you giving me that look?"

Maria's concerned tone prompted him to focus solely on her. He immediately felt ashamed of himself for displaying hostile body language.

"It's nothing. I'm anxious, that's all."

"Anxious? Why are you anxious?" Maria asked, raising her voice and attracting Vincenzo's attention.

"I have a ton of homework to do tonight."

Maria furrowed her brows and gave Vincenzo a look that indicated he should mind his own business, before directing her attention back to Tony.

"Have some more ham." She said firmly while using her fork to pile the meat on his plate. "You need energy."

Experience had taught Tony that one couldn't refuse food from their parents, so he meekly thanked Maria and pretended to enjoy the rest of his meal. He ended up being the first to finish as usual and Maria stating that she was happy to take care of the dishes allowed him to leave the table free of guilt.

He turned on the transistor radio in his room a few minutes later, so that he could hopefully focus better while doing his homework. The sound of crackling static prompted him to adjust the frequency until he had found his favorite station.

He recognized the song playing as _Keep Searchin' _by Del Shannon, which he had heard in a store while shopping with Sophia several weeks earlier. It was a nice-sounding song and although his immediate wish was to imagine fanciful scenarios in his head, Tony knew that he had to concentrate on what was important, so he picked up his pencil to begin doing calculations that would help him solve the many math problems on the page.

Math had never been his strong suit, but he chose to be optimistic by reminding himself that only a year and a half remained until graduation. What he would do afterward was still a mystery, but he liked to think that the answer would somehow become clear between now and then.

All he could do in the meantime was just deal with things as they came and hope for the best.


	2. Bedtime Blues

_"Trigonometry...schmigonometry..."_

Tony knew that looking at another right-angled triangle would make his blood boil, as he put aside his math homework and hoped that Mr Caine would be lenient when marking his answers the next day.

He moved on to something more in line with his interests. It was a curricular requirement for everyone in his grade to study _The Scarlet Letter _by Nathaniel Hawthorne and he couldn't complain when reading was one of his favorite pastimes.

The novel's setting of a Puritan colony in Massachusetts during the 1600's was something alien to him, yet he found the themes of sin, conformity and guilt to be quite intriguing indeed. He also couldn't help but feel sympathy for Hester Prynne's struggles, as well as inspired by how she remained strong and compassionate in spite of all that happened to her.

She was already becoming one of his favorite literary characters and he knew that it would be difficult to find a more admirable female protagonist. He'd read _Gone with the Wind _the previous year, under the false impression that it was a romance novel, only to find Scarlett O'Hara so unlikable that he ended up wishing she'd get some comeuppance for her unscrupulous ways.

_"Oh well. I guess Rhett Butler leaving her was bad enough_ _..."_

He realized that he was letting his opinions of fictional women get in the way of writing his essay about whether societal values had changed much since Colonial times. Frankly, he didn't believe they had, but his fear of coming across as pessimistic led to him claiming the opposite in his writing.

The minutes went by as he let the words pour out on to the page, with little regard for whether his arguments were coherent. After all, this was just the first draft and as someone who was pedantic about anything linguistic, it would take a second or third draft before he was satisfied with his work.

It was at about ten minutes past nine that he heard footsteps right outside his bedroom door. He turned his head just in time to see it being opened by his sister Sophia, who no doubt wanted to check on him after coming home from her date.

She slowly entered the room and he stared at her while already knowing what she was about to say.

"Tony, it's past nine o'clock. Shouldn't you be getting ready for bed?"

"I would, but I'm pretty busy right now, as you can see." He replied, gesturing toward the exercise book lying on his desk.

"Is that so? Would you like me to help?"

"No, I can manage."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I am."

"Well, okay. I'll be in the bathroom if you do end up needing me."

She walked out of the room and Tony realized to his own frustration, that he wouldn't be able to focus again. He looked down at the words on his page before deciding to call it a day.

He continued to listen to the radio as a means of passing the time until Sophia finished. The evening skincare routine that she went through in addition to showering and brushing her teeth always tested his patience, to the point that he sometimes wished there could be another bathroom just for him.

It occurred to him that this notion might just become a reality if he found a job and saved up enough money to live alone. He would be turning seventeen soon and it was about time to start focusing on such matters, even if he didn't feel ready to leave this life of comfort.

He sat upon his bed to ponder the sort of work that might be suitable for a high school student. It was a bad idea to help out at Sergio's butcher shop with his weak stomach, but he couldn't think of any other place that was currently in need of assistance.

Perhaps it would be best to ask Sophia or his father for advice. They both worked full-time and it was likely that they'd be able to let him know of job openings as well as introduce him to the right people.

After that, it would be a matter of whether he was good enough and his body grew tense at the possibility of being deemed irresponsible or lazy. He'd been hopeless at manual work since childhood and it was why Vincenzo hardly asked him to help with gardening or repairs anymore.

It was enough to make him feel inadequate as a male regardless of how many times Sophia insisted that he was special in his own way. He was still a bookworm who would rather get lost in a work of fiction than grow up enough to face the real world.

He turned off the radio and lay down with a sigh as the sound of the running shower reached his ears. If his estimations were correct, Sophia would be heading out in about ten minutes with a towel wrapped around her wet hair, thus allowing him to finally get ready for bed.

_"Well, I still have my looks. I suppose?"_ He thought, returning to his previous train of thought and wondering if it were possible for a boy to coast by on his appearance. He wasn't bad looking, despite his long eyelashes and feminine lips. There was probably a demand for young men like him somewhere, although such places tended to be disreputable and he valued his autonomy too much to let others exploit him.

He chuckled while remembering the period in his childhood when he entertained the idea of running away from home to join a circus. It had been a silly little fantasy that died when he read _The Adventures of Pinocchio _a second time and realized the book's true message.

He continued to reminisce until a knock on the door prompted him to sit up. He guessed that it was Sophia and he was proven right when she poked her head in to announce that she had finished.

He waited for her to leave before making his way across the hall and shutting himself in the bathroom with a sigh of relief.

* * *

Dolores was all too eager to head for bed after an evening spent rushing through homework and ignoring her cat Ringo's meows for attention. She'd named him after her third favorite of the Beatles and had been taking care of him for the past year, much to the dismay of her mother Elena.

She couldn't understand why the woman possessed such a strong aversion toward furry animals. Ringo was quite an adorable tabby and a pleasure to be around, at least when he wasn't clawing at furniture or urinating where he shouldn't.

"Oh, Ringo..." She chided while leaning down to stroke his back. "Didn't I train you enough?"

Ringo mewed and rubbed himself against her ankle in response. Dolores sighed, knowing that she could never stay upset when he behaved like this. She picked him up gently and placed him on her lap so that she wouldn't have to strain her back just to pet him.

He closed his eyes and purred deeply to show that he enjoyed her company. The sound warmed her heart and she smiled in pleasure while allowing herself to forget the troubles that usually plagued her during the day.

Her unattractive appearance and Tony's obliviousness to her feelings hardly mattered upon being reminded that she was the most important entity in Ringo's life. He'd been just a helpless kitten when she found him at the local laundromat and taken him home out of pity, so it was only natural that he had come to view her as a second mother.

She lifted Ringo into the air until all four of his paws were dangling, then began to bounce him up and down like he was a baby.

"Who needs boys anyway? You love me, don't you?"

Ringo curled his legs and squirmed in discomfort. She reluctantly placed him back on the floor and he scurried out of the room, leaving her alone again. The silence was disheartening and although it was clearly unhealthy, she thought once more about all the things that made Tony so special to her.

He was good looking beyond a doubt, but that was far from the only reason her heart raced whenever he was around. No boy had treated her as kindly in the sixteen odd years she'd been alive and it was cause enough for her to wonder sometimes if he were actually an angel in disguise.

She couldn't see any reason why he should tolerate her company, so it had to be his sheer goodwill that allowed them to remain friends to this day. As a teacher had once said during class, what really mattered was a person's inner beauty and in the case of Tony, he truly did seem to be as lovely on the inside as he was on the outside.

A sigh left her mouth as she daydreamed about his apparent perfection and envisioned the things they would do together if he ever reciprocated her feelings. She imagined lying beside him in a meadow during spring and how the sunlight would fall upon his features as they leaned in for a kiss. The thought of meeting his lips was thrilling to the point that she soon felt a tingling between her legs.

She knew full well the cause of this sensation and despite it being sinful according to the esteemed Father Gregorio, she chose to continue enjoying her intimate fantasy.

_"My sweet, sweet Tony. I'll be worth it one day, so until then, please don't look at other girls..."_


	3. The In Crowd

"Dolores. Dolores, wake up!"

Dolores opened her eyes to be met immediately by the sight of her mother Elena's face. The dismayed look on the woman's face could only mean one thing and realizing that she had slept in, she flung herself out of bed before charging straight for her wardrobe.

"Mom, out! I have to change!"

Elena stepped back to allow her daughter some space, then let out a weary sigh.

"You and your 'privacy'. I've already prepared some toast. Hurry up before it gets cold..."

Elena stormed out of the room and Dolores allowed herself a smile of relief at the fact that her mother was sometimes willing to compromise when it came to their differing values. It couldn't be easy when one had grown up in rural Mexico with five other siblings and as such, didn't see any shame in undressing in front of others.

As for her father Sergio, he saw himself as a Sicilian despite having grandparents who had originated from the province of Navarre in Spain. This piece of information was apparently reflected in their surname 'Navarra', a rather unusual one as far as Italian family names went.

In other words, one could say that she had more Spanish blood in her than Italian. It was therefore both amusing and sad to think that such a part of her ancestry had been rendered irrelevant by Sergio's ignorance of his family's past and Elena's choice to assimilate into another culture.

Tragic as it was, she had to look on the bright side. If she hadn't grown up in this neighborhood, then she would never have experienced the fortune of knowing a boy like Tony, even if his obliviousness to her feelings was frustrating.

She peered through her wardrobe while regretting not taking any time to decide what to wear the previous night. At an urgent time such as now, she found that it was nearly impossible to conjure up a complete ensemble in her mind, so she simply grabbed things at random and hoped that the result wouldn't be too unsightly.

_"It shouldn't matter anyway. You're ugly and these clothes are _ _passé, so what's there to worry about?"_

She threw her selections on the bed and quickly pulled off her nightie so that she could start dressing like a frump stuck ten years in the past. Afterwards, she bolted from her room and sat herself down promptly at the dining table, where a plate of bacon and eggs on toast awaited.

"Eat up." Elena called out while placing dishes in the sink. "Your Dad's taken the car, so you'll have to run to school..."

Dolores almost choked on her food in a rush to finish her breakfast in time, only to give up when she glanced at the clock on the wall and realized that it was five minutes to eight.

"Mom, I'm sorry. I have to leave now..." She muttered before pushing her plate aside in discomfort. "Give my leftovers to Ringo..."

Elena look up in response and gave her a frown of disapproval.

"Ringo this and Ringo that. Why do you care more about that animal than you do yourself? He can't even catch mice..."

Dolores ignored her mother's words and left the dining table to go brush her teeth, then grabbed her bag and ran for the front door. She forced it open before making sure to announce her departure.

"Bye, Mom! See you and Ringo again after school!"

She heard Elena huff loudly in response and guessed that the woman was being her usual fed up self. It was fortunate that nothing bad had happened to Ringo so far and she hoped that it would remain that way, because he really was special to her as Elena had so correctly stated.

She broke into a run once outside and made it about one block, before she felt a stitch on the right side of her body and had to stop to recover. She clutched her belly while regretting the weight she'd gained since Christmas and thinking that she'd never get to school in time, when the clicking of bicycle tires prompted her to turn around.

It was none other than Tony, who was riding to school this morning. He smiled and squeezed his brakes until he came to a stop beside her.

"Dolores, hop on behind me. It'll be a lot faster." He said with some urgency, as he shifted himself closer to the front of his bike seat.

"Are you sure?" I'm heavier than you think."

"I think I can handle it. Come on, or I'll leave without you."

"Well, alright..."

She mounted the small space behind him and reached out to gently grasp his upper arms, knowing that this was about as intimate as she could get with him with the way things were now.

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Let's go..."

Tony started to pedal and although he seemed to be exerting himself at first, Dolores felt relieved when he relaxed and began to speed up. After all, she didn't want to be a burden and the fact that he was doing fine took away much of her guilt.

They approached the school gates ten minutes later and Tony let her off so that he could find somewhere to secure her bike. She thanked him as he rode away, then continued on in the direction that her locker hall could be found, all the while doing her best to ignore the stares and murmurs of other students.

"Those two looked pretty comfy. Do you think they're together?"

"Sure hope not. He must be blind if he likes her..."

Hearing such a thing even from a complete stranger was difficult for Dolores to bear. She turned to stare at the two girls who had spoken and held back tears until they realized their mistake and retreated in shame.

She wiped her eyes once they were gone and forced herself to bravely continue walking.

* * *

Tony was sure it would only be a matter of time before he climbed up the popularity chain. After all, he had the looks and he'd spent the latter half of last year making an effort to become more sociable.

He'd volunteered to man one of the stalls at the school auction among other things and if his memory was correct, he'd caught the attention of more girls than boys.

One of them had stood out in particular and her name was Giorgia Amato. He would catch sight of her once in a while during Sunday church services and she was quite pretty as far as girls of his age went. Her parents owned a local dry cleaning business which was frequented almost entirely by suburban women like his mother Maria.

He didn't know much else about Giorgia besides the fact that she was the youngest member of the church choir, and it seemed like the time had come for him to change that.

It would take more courage than he currently possessed to ask her out, but on the off chance that she said 'yes', he'd be able to prove that he was indeed worthy of a relationship and his social standing would probably be elevated too as a result.

As if on cue, Giorgia soon entered the classroom trailing behind a group of girls that also included the popular Sandra, who had broken up with Richie a few months earlier.

Even though Sandra had proven herself to be good at heart more than once, he still couldn't help but feel intimidated in her presence. At the age of seventeen, she was already the epitome of a breezy surfer girl and when she flashed a friendly smile, he found himself shrinking back in his chair despite the lack of actual danger.

He relaxed once she and the other girls had passed him completely and it was then that he realized Dolores was nowhere to be seen. He knew that she wasn't exactly well-liked or confident, so he hoped her morning wasn't currently being ruined by someone who couldn't keep nasty thoughts to themselves.

Fortunately, his worries were put to rest when she came walking into the room with hesitation. He made eye contact with her and almost immediately, she relaxed enough to quicken her pace until she had arrived at the desk beside him.

"Hey, Dolores..." He said just loudly enough for her to hear as she sat down. "What took you so long?"

She turned to look at him with narrow eyes while replying in a dull voice.

"I had a bathroom emergency."

"Oh."

Tony knew better than to question further when girls gave such answers. He had learned this one day at the age of ten when after Sophia had used the bathroom, he'd been horrified to see traces of blood in the toilet.

Maria had subsequently been left with little choice but to explain a woman's time of the month while reassuring him that his sister certainly hadn't come down with some deathly illness.

He smiled at this memory, then pushed it aside so that he could be ready for the day ahead. It was five minutes to nine according to the clock beside the blackboard, which meant that Mrs. Martins had to show up soon.

She was a teacher known for being punctual, so he wondered if some emergency had befallen her as well. He glanced behind him at Sandra and the other girls before the loud click of high heels prompted him to turn back around.

The woman standing in front of the class was attractive, even with her horn-rimmed glasses and dark hair swept up in a tight bun. Tony did his best to keep his eyes off her ample chest as she cleared her throat and began taking attendance.

He allowed himself to take a deep breath of relief once she had gone through everyone's names, only to feel his chest tighten again when Mrs Martins got up to write on the board and he saw how round her backside looked in that plaid skirt.

It was wrong to ogle a woman almost as old as his mother, but he couldn't help himself. She had a great figure for her age, as well as a certain sophistication that one simply couldn't find in adolescent girls. Not to mention, he had a feeling that she was nowhere near as strait-laced as her current appearance seemed to suggest.

He imagined that she was probably the sort to remove her glasses, let her hair down and go absolutely wild upon returning home from work. He instinctively tightened his fist and wishing for some time alone, raised his hand to get her attention.

"Yes, Tony?" Mrs. Martins inquired sternly, shifting her focus toward him.

"I'd like permission to use the bathroom, Mrs. Martins."

Mrs. Martins adjusted her glasses.

"Of course you may, Tony. You're a trustworthy boy."

"Thanks."

He quickly left his desk and hurried for the door out of fear that she might change her mind before he could get far. Luckily, he was able to step out into the corridor without hearing a further word and sought to enjoy the solitude by sighing loudly and stretching his arms.

_"Damn you and your dirty mind..." _He thought to himself while heading for the boys' restroom, which was located at the other end of the building. _"You're going to get in big trouble some day..."_


End file.
